Research Note

On the modified random walk algorithm for Monte-Carlo radiation transfer

Spitzer Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA e-mail: trobitaille@cfa.harvard.edu

Received: 20 May 2010
Accepted: 12 September 2010

Abstract

Min et al. (2009) presented two complementary techniques that use the diffusion approximation to allow efficient Monte-Carlo radiation transfer in very optically thick regions: a modified random walk and a partial diffusion approximation. In this note, I show that the calculations required for the modified random walk method can be significantly simplified. In particular, the diffusion coefficient and the mass absorption coefficients required for the modified random walk are in fact the same as the standard diffusion coefficient and the Planck mean mass absorption coefficient.